MUSIC
Courtney Barnett
The Forum, Thursday March 17
There’s something a little surreal about seeing a room full of mostly millennials bopping along to a song about housing unaffordability, but such is the power of Courtney Barnett that the packed-out crowd are over the moon that she’s treated us to her hit song, Depreston, from her 2015 debut studio album Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit.
Courtney Barnett at the Forum in Melbourne.Credit:Emily Day
The Melbourne indie singer-songwriter took over the Forum, wearing an understated outfit of jeans and blue T-shirt with a long fringe and tousled hair, in her first headline show for three years, showcasing songs from her latest album Things Take Time, Take Time, plus some old favourites.
With her trademark wit and deadpan delivery – and extremely polite stage banter – Barnett wooed the crowd in the first show in a lengthy tour which soon heads to Europe and the US.
It looks to be a big year for Barnett, whose “anti-rock” documentary Anonymous Club was also released in cinemas on Thursday, offering an intimate glimpse into the private life of the shy musician.
Her new songs are somewhat of a departure in style – written in Melbourne during the pandemic, there are references to curfews, loneliness, stillness. There’s a sense of looking for hope in negative situations, with songs such as Write A List Of Things To Look Forward To and Turning Green: “The trees are turning green, And this springtime lethargy, Is kinda forcing you to see flowers in the weeds”.
There are still plenty of sly observations, like waiting for a reply to a text in If I Don’t Hear From You Tonight, which mingles the longing of new love with the limbo of lockdown.
As the show winds to a close, we’re treated to pared-back instrumentation and heartfelt harmonies in Oh The Night: “Sorry that I’ve been slow, You know It takes a little, Time for me to show, How I really feel”.
Well, we waited three years, and it was worth it.
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